Institutions and learned societies Books, bestsellers and new releases

Book SynopsisOver the past three decades, Meyer, Jepperson, and colleagues have contributed to the development of one of the leading approaches in social theory, by analyzing the cultural frameworks that have shaped modern organizations, states, and identities. Bringing together key articles and new reflections, this volume collects the essential theoretical ideas of ''sociological neoinstitutionalism.'' It clarifies the core ideas and situates them within social theory writ large. Among other topics, the authors discuss the changing nature of the actors that have operated within contemporary social structure. The book concludes with the evolving frameworks that have structured social activity in the postWorld War II period of ''embedded liberalism,'' in the more recent neoliberal period, and in an emergent post-liberal period that appears to be a radical departure.Trade Review'Despite its influence, neoinstitutional theory has long been known by its parts, with organizational theorists focusing one strand and political sociologists on another. Institutional Theory, a collection of foundational and in some case little known essays and new reflective chapters by the theory's progenitor, John Meyer, and one of its most gifted expositors, Ron Jepperson, is the first volume to present institutional theory as a single coherent approach to social analysis, with compelling results. Because most work in institutional theory has been published in conventional journal-article format, using unpretentious language and familiar comfortably positivist methods, it has been easy to underestimate the extent to which it represents a fundamentally radical break with received theory, challenging and reworking such basic categories as action and agency, levels of analysis, and organization in ways that will defamiliarize and reconstitute the reader's understanding of the social world. This welcome volume will be a critically important resource for social theory for many years to come.' Paul DiMaggio, Professor of Sociology, New York University'Starting as a movement against mainstream realistic views of actorhood, neoinstitutional theory has established itself as sociology's core paradigm which tells us what makes it distinct in the family of the social and economic sciences. This collection of milestone essays demonstrates this achievement in all its depth and ramifications.' Richard Münch, Senior Professor for Theory of Society and Comparative Macrosociology, Zeppelin University'We have waited decades for a book long treatment of new institutional theory to be published. Simply put, the Jepperson-Meyer statement is a gem that was worth the wait. It presents many of the most important statements of the theory, a summary of the theory's substantial research program, and renewed theoretical analysis with a proposal for a reinvigorated empirical project.' Neil Fligstein, Class of 1939 Chancellor's Professor, University of California, Berkeley'Jepperson and Meyer expound the hugely influential institutional approach to understanding the individual, the corporation, and nation-state as cultural projects. These institutions arose by historical happenstance to become part of a global project that has culturally aligned societies around the world. The theory is not so much an alternative to prevailing theories of politics, structures, power, and self-interest as a corrective to all contemporary theorizing. This sophisticated, witty, volume theorizes not only where modern global society came from but, importantly, where it is going.' Frank Dobbin, Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard University'While modern common sense takes actors for granted, social theory must also look inside and beyond the black box of actorhood. In this important book, Jepperson and Meyer show how modern individuals, organizations and states are constructed from cultural models. They delineate and carefully elaborate a compelling theoretical account that spans multiple levels of analysis and provides illuminating insights into contemporary world society and its cultural-institutional framework.' Boris Holzer, Professor of General Sociology and Macrosociology, University of KonstanzTable of ContentsCredits; Preface; Part I. Introduction: 1. Introduction: cultural institutionalism; Part II. Institutional Theory: Its Role in Modern Social Analysis; 2. Society without culture (1988); 3. Institutions, institutional effects, and institutionalism (1991); 4. The development and application of sociological neo-institutionalism (2002); 5. Reflections on Part II: institutional theory; Part III. The Institutional Level of Analysis: 6. Multiple levels of analysis and the limitations of methodological individualisms (2011); 7. The limitations illustrated: examples from the research literature on macrosocial change (2007); 8. Reflections on Part III: levels of analysis; Part IV. Institutions of Modernity and Post-Modernity: The Construction of Actors: 9. The 'actors' of modern society: the cultural construction of social agency (2000); 10. Reflections: institutional theory and world society (2009); 11. Reflections on Part IV: the construction of actors; Part V. Conclusion: 12. Concluding reflections: evolving cultural models in global and national society.

Read more less

15 in stock

£90.25

Johns Hopkins University Press Informal Institutions and Democracy Lessons from

Book SynopsisAnalyzes the function of informal institutions in Latin America and how they support or weaken democratic governance. This work examines how informal rules shape the performance of state and democratic institutions, offering insights into contemporary problems of governability, and unrule of law.Trade ReviewOne of the most interesting and illuminating works on Latin American politics to appear in recent years. -- Joe Foweraker Journal of Latin American Studies 2007 Rich in empirical material and in provoking theoretical questions. -- Julian Durazo Herrmann European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 2007Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroductionPart I. The Informal Politics of Executive-Legislative Relations1. Accommodating Informal Institutions and Chilean Democracy2. How Informal Electoral Institutions Shape the Brazilian Legislative Arena3. Crafting Legislative Ghost Coalitions in Ecuador: Informal Institutions and Economic Reform in an Unlikely CasePart II. Informal Institutions and Electoral Politics4. Informal Institutions When Formal Contracting Is Prohibited: Campaign Finance in Brazil5. The Difficult Road from Caudillismo to Democracy: The Impact of Clientelism in Honduras6. Do Informal Rules Make Democracy Work? Accounting for Accountability in ArgentinaPart III. Informal Institutions and Party Politics7. The Birth and Transformation of the Dedazo in Mexico8. Election Insurance and Coalition Survival: Formal and Informal Institutions in Chile9. Informal Institutions and Party Organization in Latin AmericaPart IV. Informal Judicial Institutions and The Rule of Law10. The Rule of (Non)Law: Prosecuting Police Killings in Brazil and Argentina11. Mexico's Postelectoral Concertacasiones: The Rise and Demise of a Substitutive Informal Institution12. Dispensing Justice at the Margins of Formality: The Informal Rule of Law in Latin AmericaConclusionAfterword: On Informal institutions, Once AgainNotesReferences

Read more less

£65.50

Johns Hopkins University Press Informal Institutions and Democracy

Book SynopsisAnalyzes the function of informal institutions in Latin America and how they support or weaken democratic governance. This work examines how informal rules shape the performance of state and democratic institutions, offering insights into contemporary problems of governability, and unrule of law.Trade ReviewOne of the most interesting and illuminating works on Latin American politics to appear in recent years. -- Joe Foweraker Journal of Latin American Studies 2007 Rich in empirical material and in provoking theoretical questions. -- Julian Durazo Herrmann European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies 2007Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroductionPart I. The Informal Politics of Executive-Legislative Relations1. Accommodating Informal Institutions and Chilean Democracy2. How Informal Electoral Institutions Shape the Brazilian Legislative Arena3. Crafting Legislative Ghost Coalitions in Ecuador: Informal Institutions and Economic Reform in an Unlikely CasePart II. Informal Institutions and Electoral Politics4. Informal Institutions When Formal Contracting Is Prohibited: Campaign Finance in Brazil5. The Difficult Road from Caudillismo to Democracy: The Impact of Clientelism in Honduras6. Do Informal Rules Make Democracy Work? Accounting for Accountability in ArgentinaPart III. Informal Institutions and Party Politics7. The Birth and Transformation of the Dedazo in Mexico8. Election Insurance and Coalition Survival: Formal and Informal Institutions in Chile9. Informal Institutions and Party Organization in Latin AmericaPart IV. Informal Judicial Institutions and The Rule of Law10. The Rule of (Non)Law: Prosecuting Police Killings in Brazil and Argentina11. Mexico's Postelectoral Concertacasiones: The Rise and Demise of a Substitutive Informal Institution12. Dispensing Justice at the Margins of Formality: The Informal Rule of Law in Latin AmericaConclusionAfterword: On Informal institutions, Once AgainNotesReferences

Read more less

£34.05